Most of us, if asked, "What is a giant?" would answer: "A creature of extraordinary proportions." Perhaps some one might be reminded of Goliath; another, of Bunyan's Giant Despair. However, it is safe to assume that in our day men usually think of a giant as an entertaining fiction of the fairy-story writer; and they might be inclined to doubt, if told that Blunderbore and his brethren are personifications of the distortion of proportion which takes place in human thought when confronted by a difficulty. To the housewife, the pile of unwashed dishes; to the business man, a desk cluttered with correspondence; to the college student, the thesis, research, and required each term,—all may become giants in thought, if "it can't be done" is allowed to come between the doer and the deed. Once undertaken, the task often surprises us by quickly assuming more normal proportions, and soon is mastered. The human thought has to know that "it can be done" So, in the application of the healing truth taught in Christian Science, we must watch that one phase of error does not seem to us to be larger and more difficult to handle than another.

From season to season, and from one generation to the next, the beliefs of disease which frighten mankind change. The specific diseases which claimed to terrify in the Middle Ages are gone. In their place others try to stalk up and down, as did Goliath of old, defying any one to overcome them, and terrifying poor humanity into believing that their height is indeed "six cubits and a span." There are beliefs, such as incurability, deformity, and chronic conditions, which seem to have become fixed giants in human thought. They would appear just as large and unconquerable to Christian Scientists as to their fellow-men, but for the work of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. So one who is trying to put Christian Science into practice must be ever on guard that he be not mesmerized into the "it can't be done" state of thought. He must banish the lie, or the liar that whispers, "Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him."

There are two mental qualities which the Christian Scientist needs if he would slay the giants of erroneous sense. One is confidence; the other, energy. They supplement and complement each other, and commingle in the "it can be done" mental state. Confidence is the consciousness of ability which has its root in the experience of past right activity; energy is the ability for grasping opportunity, or the inherent power to act. It was confidence which enabled David to say, "The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine." To the mere boy that he was at the time of the episode, those two wild beasts must have looked huge and powerful. Did he run for help? Did he hide himself behind a rock and let them have the lamb? No; he acted. And the fact that he had acted and overpowered two such savage creatures strengthened his confidence so that he could go forth to fight the giant Philistine. Many years later, David and his followers were able to subdue a number of other giants. Perhaps David, with the memory of the fallen Goliath to hearten him, was enabled to speak after this fashion to his servants: Come now, are they not of the house of Goliath, whose staff was a weaver's beam? The Lord who delivered me from the Philistine in Elah will deliver us again to-day.

Confidence in God's power, however, would constitute a state of inertia without true energy whereby to utilize that power. When the Christian Scientist speaks of energy he does not refer to the so-called material energy of physics, mechanics, or chemistry; nor yet to the thinly veiled form of human will-power that masquerades as personal or bodily energy. Instead, he makes reference to what our Leader has named, in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p.249), "the divine energy of Spirit." In other parts of the same volume she indicates that such energy can neither weary nor waste away for lack of material aid, and must be utilized in our own behalf or we can be of little help to others.

It is the energy of divine Mind which enables the Christian Scientist to grasp every opportunity to prove the power of Truth to heal and save. Thus, whereas it was confidence which prompted David to say, "Thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine," it was energy—the might of divine Mind—that empowered him to run to meet his enemy and throw so unerringly the one small stone. With the giant overthrown, a mentally lazy David would have been satisfied; but not so the son of Jesse. He energetically ran forward again, and with Goliath's own sword severed his head from his body—put an end to that problem beyond possibility of reversal or revival.

On a number of occasions, error appeared to the children of Israel in the guise of a giant or giants. The promised land was inhabited by some so large that the mere rumor of their size nearly caused the Israelites to give up all hope of getting possession. King Og of Bashan was, perhaps, typical of the whole tribe. His huge iron bedstead was nine cubits by four. In after years the tales of the overthrow of these giants were woven into Hebrew history and into psalms of praise to God. For centuries they heartened Israel to further victories. Even so they hearten us to-day to combat evil, bringing as they do the clear realization that error had the same trick then as now of appearing greatly exaggerated, and that those who have the right concept of God have always been able to reduce and destroy its false claims.

On page 330 of Science and Health we learn that "evil is nothing." Reasoning from this premise, could we possibly deduce a large or powerful "nothing"? Or could we doubt our ability to overcome "nothing"? Such conclusions would be manifest absurdities. Yet sometimes the lie will creep into our thought that that "nothing" is incurable, congenital, hereditary; or, perhaps, an after effect of another "nothing," hence invincible.

The battle in Elah was an event of the past, when one day a young man took refuge in the temple of Nob. He was fleeing for his life, and needed food and friends and—most of all—a weapon. The priest unwrapped a bundle of cloth, which had been hidden behind the ephod, and handed him a shining sword. The young man was David; and the sword was the sword of Goliath, the Philistine. With confidence and energy renewed by the sight of this evidence of past success, David rose at once to hasten onward. So in Christian Science, the individual's Christianly metaphysical work on one occasion will enable him to do quicker and clearer work at the next testing time. He will learn to face the Goliath of to-day with the intuitive certainty that it will be the lion and bear of to-morrow; this certainty is a sword flashing backward with confidence and forward with energy to vanquish every vanity of evil. Then it may be said of such workers, as Joshua said of the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim: "Thou art a great people, and hast great power.... for thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots, and though they be strong."

Copyright, 1922, by The Christian Science Publishing Society, Falmouth and St. Paul Streets, Boston, Massachusetts. Entered at Boston post office as second-class matter. Acceptance for mailing at a special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 11, 1918.